The Plea of a Wife and a Mother
by ScarlettInkwell
Summary: AU Jibbs. There is only so much a Marine's wife can take, even when she is the first female director of an armed federal agency. Even when the said Marine's young daughter does not seem to find anything wrong with her father being gone this time. Even when she said she would never leave. What exactly are the men in Marine uniforms here to tell her?
1. Chapter 1

_I know, I know, I should totally be updating Let Me Back In, but I'm stuck in a rut about that one and this just attacked me. ATTACKED. I will try my best to update it soon. In the mean time, I hope you guys enjoy this. It is a new beginning to a new story. R&R please?_

_S. I._

* * *

**The Plea of a Wife and Mother**

"Laur, hurry up!" The woman hollered up the stairs of the old Georgetown brownstone manor, "I have to run an op in MTAC and I can't be late."

Standing at the landing of the stairs, she expertly scraped her long red waves into a immaculate tight ponytail gathered at the nape of her neck.

"Lauren Anastasia, get your little four year old butt down here this instant!" She half jokingly yelled.

A slight, lanky figure bounded down the stairs, her scarlet tresses billowing behind her. She wore a simple light green sundress that brought out the ice blue of her almond shaped eyes that were surprisingly warm.

Her father's eyes.

Jenny caught her daughter as she flung herself off the last few steps, swinging her around and placing her gently on the ground.

Grasping a portion of the hair on Lauren's head, Jenny began to twist the fiery strands into a neat French braid. She ran her index fingers down the back of the daughter's ears quickly with practiced precision and then patted the young girl on her head.

"Can we go now, Mama?"

"Sure, baby."

When the young child was safely placated and secured in her booster seat in the car, Jenny got in beside her and motioned for her driver Stanley to take them towards NCIS.

"Mama, will I see Papa today?"

"Yes baby, he's shipping in today. We are going to pick him up later, alright?"

"Okay. I wanna show him my picture."

Jenny held on to the small Eiffel Tower pendant Jethro had gotten her. He always promised that someday he would take her to Paris on a lover's getaway.

But now, he was always away. Deployed oceans away with the Marine Corps.

She did know what she was getting into back then, but it never struck her that it would be as painful as it was to send him off and wait for his return.

Their daughter was barely four - her Papa had missed her birthday, but she was eternally optimistic, choosing instead to focus on the date that he would return.

This time, after fourteen months away, her Marine would finally return.

For that very reason, her daughter was exceptionally excited today. Jenny chuckled at the thought of Cynthia, her long suffering assistant, trying to control the exuberant child while Jenny had meetings with the Secretary of the Navy.

Jenny was the youngest ever director of an armed federal agency at only thirty one, and also the first ever female director.

The job, of course, came with its perks despite the disadvantages.

For one, her salary was higher than that of a Special Agent's, even that of the leader of the Major Crimes Response Team, the post she had previously held.

She could also bring her young child to the Navy Yard and settle her in a corner of her office.

It did assuage the guilt she sometimes felt over Jethro being gone so often.

She strode past the bullpen where Ziva and McGee were already seated. Tony DiNozzo, who had taken her place after her promotion, was nowhere to be found. The additional spot on the team had yet to be filled.

"Aunt Ziva!" The young redhead sprinted over to the Israeli who had known her since their early days in Europe and Spain on intelligence ops together.

"Morning, tateleh. Did you give your mother a lot of trouble this morning?" Ziva hugged the girl warmly, before turning to Jenny, "Shalom, Jen."

"Shalom, Ziva. Good morning, Tim." Jenny reached one lithe hand out towards her young daughter, "Come on, sweetheart, I have to get to MTAC and you have to get to Cynthia."

"Okay Mama."

The bundle of green dress and red curls dashed up the stairs to the catwalk before her mother could say another word.

"You know, Jen, maybe if you did not wear such high heels, you could catch up with-" Seeing the director already at the top of the flight of stairs ahead of her daughter, she amended her statement, "Oh, well, never mind then."

Jenny chuckled as she led her daughter toward the large metal door with a plaque that read 'Jennifer Elizabeth Shepard, Director, NCIS'.

As she helped Lauren to push the heavy doors open, she called out to her assistant.

"Cynthia?" She stepped into the reception area in front of her office and proceeded with wide strides toward the next set of double doors when she found her assistant's desk vacant.

"Cynthia, are you here?"

Lauren had ran in ahead of her into the office itself but an unmistakable yelp from the four year old sent Jenny careening in as well.

Her flustered assistant schooled her features quickly, gesturing toward the men in uniform sitting at the conference table opposite her desk.

"Director Shepard, these men are from the Marine Corps." Cynthia made to grasp Lauren's hand, beginning to usher her out the door, "They say they need to speak with you."

Only when her daughter was out of the room did Jenny allow herself to blanch and seat herself down shakily.

"So, gentlemen. We both know there is nothing even close to positive about this visit, so cut to the chase and tell me what has happened to my husband."

Her tone was clipped as she ran her bony fingers through the satin threads of her hair.

"Well, M'am, Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs was-"

The official who had been speaking burst into a coughing fit, harsh coughs roughly racking his frame.

She rose to get him a glass of water out of courtesy.

She was not sure if she wanted to hear what they had to say.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Here you go:) Another chapter. I hope you like it:) R&R please._

_There are some non-English phrases in this chapter; I put in translations in square brackets after that. Forgive me if my grammar/word form/tenses are shite, I haven't used this language in a while._

_Thanks for reading._

_x_

_Scar_

* * *

**Chapter 2**

"Mrs Gibbs-" The older, lankier man cleared his throat and corrected himself, "I'm sorry, Director Shepard. We have some... news about your husband."

He ran a weathered hand through his gray hair, toying with the brimmed cap on the table in front of him.

His blonde haired companion pulled uncomfortably at his dress jacket, obviously new to the job.

"Well-" He attempted to begin.

"Sirs, please, just tell me what is going on?"

Her voice was steely, sharp and acrid in the tense silence that sat between them.

The blonde haired chap nervously shook the hair out of his eyes, placing his cap down decisively and began to speak.

"Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs was on base two days ago in Kuwait. There were insurgents that flooded the base in an ambush and they opened fire."

Jenny gripped the edge of the table tight, willing her mind to return to her from the horrible situations and possibilities this could be leading up to.

"Wh- what happened to him?" She refused to sound broken, trying to hold the panic she felt overwhelm her in.

Her voice still broke at she stuttered, though.

"There was open fire and he tried to defend his platoon." The older man began, setting his hands diplomatically on the table, "He tried to be a hero and he saved half his men."

"With all due respect, sirs, you still aren't telling me anything about his condition."

The men looked at each other, trying to gauge the best way to break the news to this woman.

She was unlike any of the military wives they had had to deliver such news to before.

Jenny sighed in exasperation, motioning to the door frantically.

* * *

"Gentlemen, there is a four year old girl outside who has seen less of her dad in the past four years than you have each seen the active battlefield."

Rasping in a breath, she continued on her subtle tirade.

"He has seen her for about two months in the entire time combined, yet she loves him with all her heart. When she asks me if her Papa is dead or injured, I would like to be able to tell her the truth."

The younger of the two men had eyes of cornflower blue that misted over slightly.

He remembered his own young child with her chestnut brown hair that refused to stay tidy and her cherry blossom lips that stretched into the most beautiful smile.

The redhead outside had seen only four summers. She had seen her daddy not even four months in that time.

He needed to be able to answer to her.

The child was an innocent in all of this; she had never chosen to have her daddy in the Marine Corps.

After all, if someone ever had to give his wife and daughter such news, he would like them to be straightforward about it.

There was no need to drag out the process of adding to someone else's pain.

* * *

So he bit the bullet and gave the news.

* * *

"Gunnery Sergeant Gibbs was shot five times trying to protect his men. He killed half the group of sixteen insurgents before he fell."

His companion, thankfully, gave the young fresh-faced official some reprieve and took over from there.

"He is at Bethesda now. The doctors say he might not make it through the night."

The men paled as they witnessed one of the hardiest women, heck, people, in America turn as white as a sheet.

A whimper of sorts escaped the confines of her self control before she reverted to her mask of 'Director'.

* * *

For a moment there, all she was was a Marine's wife.

* * *

They watched as she rose languidly from her seat, her shoulders overly tense and still as she tried not to slump.

She took tentative steps towards her desk and picked up her phone.

Pressing two keys in a trance, she muttered into the receiver.

"Cynthia, send Lauren in here and get the Major Crimes Response Team up here right now, thank you."

The towering door opened slightly and a pair of moist, questioning cerulean eyes peeked in at a slightly comical height.

Director Jennifer Shepard, NCIS suddenly morphed into Mrs. Jenny Gibbs, Marine wife and mother.

She bent down to her daughter's eye level and opened her arms, picking up the weeping redhead that crashed into her mother's arms and crumpled into a heap of tearful four year old.

* * *

"Maman, est Papa OK ? Il est mort ? Dites-moi, Maman ! Ce qui lui est arrivé ? Il a promis qu'il viendrait à la maison."

[Mama, is Papa okay? Is he dead? Tell me, Mama! What happened to him? He promised to come home.]

Lauren shied away from the men in uniform that sat across the room from where she sat, hysterical, in her mother's arms.

When she got frightened, she reverted back to the language that her parents always used so lovingly - French.

The little girl was spouting off flustered questions at a mile a minute, gasping in breaths and hyperventilating as she went along.

As word after word of perfectly pronounced French slipped past her lips in a frenzy, the men sitting at the table nearby simply stared, mouths gaping at the young girl's linguistic skills.

Jenny rubbed her daughter's back, carrying her over to the high backed director's chair at her desk.

"Hush, ma chérie. Ton Papa est blessé et est à l'hôpital. Il n'est pas morte, ma chérie. Il viendra bientôt la maison."

[Hush, sweetheart. Your Papa is injured and is in the hospital. He is not dead, darling. He will come home soon.]

The child's head snapped up at the prospect of her father coming home immediately. Her face brightened and a smile broke out on her face.

"Bon ! Sinon petit frère ne sauront jamais lui, et je veux que mon petit frère comment bon papa est."

[Good! Otherwise little brother would never get to meet him, and I want my little brother to know how great Papa is.]

Jenny cracked a sad smile at her daughter as the door to her office swung open and the MCRT as well as Ducky, Abby and Palmer ran into her office.

* * *

Jenny nodded to the two men as Cynthia showed them out.

She could not help but notice the small quirk of a half smile that Ziva gave her.

"Ainsi, Jen. Vous et Gibbs vont avoir un autre bébé ?"

[So, Jen. You and Gibbs are going to have another baby?]

Of course Ziva would pick up on that.

Thankfully, she was the only one other than Lauren and herself in the room that understood French with the fluency required to understand their rapid fire conversation.

Jenny leveled Ziva with a glare she had perfected during her days running ops with her.

Raising two hands in surrender, Ziva motioned that she would not spill her secret.

* * *

"Merci, Ziva. Merci beaucoup."

Almost immediately after their exchange ended, the other members of the MCRT as well as Ducky, Abby and Palmer began to shoot questions off like wayward cannons.

They might not have ever worked with Jethro, but they had all formed a sort of dysfunctional family since Jenny had been their leader.

* * *

In the team's words, Jethro was the father. Strict and no-nonsense, but he loved you all the same.

Jenny was the mother. Kind, unwavering but always would push you that little bit more because she knew you could do it if you would just try.

Ducky, the unassuming grandfather. Rickety and kindly, he could entrance everyone with riveting tales of a time before theirs.

Palmer, the strange cousin. He was not all that right in the head and seemed weird at times, but he was lovable in his own quirky way.

Tony was the oldest son, the most immature one. He was cocky and overly eager to prove that he was grown.

Ziva was the most levelheaded, the eldest daughter. To make up for her older brother's shortcomings, she had to keep it all together so Jenny could run NCIS properly.

McGee and Abby were the next to youngest children, unique and docile but explosive when they had to be.

Lauren, the baby of the family. The pleasant surprise.

Everyone babied her. Coddled her, pampered her.

* * *

How was she going to tell this family that their father figure might not make it through the night?

It was at times like this one that she realized: She did not just have one daughter; all these people were her family.

How was she going to keep this family together when she could barely string a sentence together?

* * *

She worried her lip with her teeth before mentally berating herself for resorting to such a childish coping mechanism.

Her hands itched for the cool glass and pristine, precise sculpting of the bourbon bottle and crystal tumbler.

She would never drink in front of her daughter, though.

Besides, she could not drink anyway.

* * *

"Jethro was injured in an insurgent ambush two days ago in Kuwait. They flew him in to Bethesda but the doctors aren't sure if he is going to make it through the night."

The entire team was stunned to silence, even Abby..

"How bad is it, Jennifer?" Ducky softly asked.

He knew she had to get it out somehow.

"Shot five times, three in the chest, one in the right thigh and another in the left shoulder."

Her face clouded over with anger momentarily.

* * *

"Before he left, I told him to try not to be too much of a hero. He was heroic enough for fighting for his country. And yet, he still went ahead and was a hero. Was it worth it, Jethro? Was it worth almost losing your life?"

She leaned her forehead on the cool surface of her table as she weakly muttered the last part, "Was it worth potentially leaving your wife behind with two children?"

The entire team looked at her stunned once again, with the exception of Ziva.

The palpable silence was hacked through by the machete that was the phone on her desk.

She picked it up and answered stonily.

* * *

"Shepard."

"Mrs. Jennifer Gibbs? Sorry, Director Jennifer Shepard? This is Bethesda Hospital. We are calling you with regards to your husband. Can you come in as soon as possible please?"

"I will be there within the hour. Thank you for calling."

* * *

**_A/N: Uh oh. What's going on now? Hehe sorry it's so short. I love you all, but time is tight and I've got texts to read and a literature thesis to write and time is really tight. I hope you liked it. _**

**_R&R please? Concrit is always welcome:)_**

**_Thanks to all of those who followed, favorited, reviewed and read. I love you all._**

**_x_**

**_Scar_**


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